Social Genocide Page #6

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in their pockets.

Then they spent this money,

bought a car, enlarged their home,

started a business.

Did it create many unemployed?

Between 5000 and 7000,

maybe more.

There are no reliable figures,

but it's known to be

in the thousands.

There were thousands

of us semi-employed,

trying to get by.

The unemployed

weren't all from YPF.

Thousands of others came

from the factories and businesses

that also had to close.

Some years later,

during the winter of 1996,

there was a revolt in Cutral-C.

We're starving!

We give them gas,

oil, electricity!

Unable to find work,

thousands of unemployed

blocked the main highway

for days and nights,

in freezing temperatures,

and facing

the charges of the state police.

That single victory

created the "piquetero" movement

with its "roadblocks".

I cannot rule on this.

The police and I are withdrawing.

This judge ordered

the state police to withdraw.

The people has won!

Natural-gas field of Loma de la Lata

Gas del Estado

was the pride of the Argentineans.

It was a showpiece

for companies all over the world.

Why?

It managed the extraction of gas,

despite of the remoteness

of the deposits,

like clockwork.

Europeans copied it,

and even some North Americans.

In 50 years of existence,

it provided natural gas

to 5 million Argentineans,

whereas in 90 years

of British companies,

only 300000 Argentineans

got high-priced imported gas.

The Petrobras company

estimated that Gas del Estado

was worth 25 billion dollars.

After being appraised

by international consultants,

it was sold

for 2,5 billion dollars.

- Ten times less?

- Precisely.

Repsol polluted the area

to such an extent

that the Mapuche Indians

lodged a complaint

with international organizations.

Here, a member of our community

built a home

but couldn't move in.

When he dug a well to pump water,

he realized that in fact,

it was gasoline

that was coming out.

This is the pipe...

installed by my father in 1995,

so he could pump water to drink

and irrigate.

You'll see what he got...

It's gasoline.

I'll show you,

It's pure gasoline.

Seven years ago, supposedly,

Repsol decontaminated this area.

What you pump out

is almost hi-octane gas.

Not only on these 55 hectares.

The whole ground water

is contaminated,

to the very bottom...

Where the ground water begins.

CORPORATISM:

AND MAFIOCRACY:

Menem concludes a pact

with Alfonsn for his re-election,

in exchange

for a constitutional reform

that includes new statutes

and an extra senator

for the Radical party.

The "Olivos Pact",

or bi-party pact,

is signed

without consultations or debate,

behind the backs of the citizens,

in order to guarantee

the continuity of the model.

This reform legitimizes Menem,

who has enacted

more than 300 decree-laws,

ten times more

than in Argentina's whole history.

The parties

have nothing left to propose.

Radicalism and neo-Peronism

are emptied of their substance.

They become organizations

for doling out public appointments:

A corporation of professionals

without any ideology

that infects nearly

all political parties,

whose only loyalty

is to their own privileges.

The once-powerful

CGT workers union

is now a ghost of its former self.

Its zealous association with Menem

finally drove the workers away.

As they hugged each other,

the union bigwigs

betrayed the workers

and amassed private wealth.

The Supreme Court

The court of impunity

No court was as criticized

and challenged

as the Menem era court

Argentinean society faults

the Supreme Court

for its role in a mafioso pact

of impunity

set up in the country in the 1990s.

It is blamed

for authorizing and legalizing

the sale of State-owned corporations

at odious prices,

stripping pensioners

of their rights,

stripping workers of their rights,

and finally

for exonerating politicians

who committed offenses

while in public office.

For dozens of years,

no important bureaucrat who

committed an offense against the State

has been sentenced.

Menem's second term

Protected by corrupt judges,

the sinister alliance

of politicians and union-leaders

with big business,

consolidates the mafiocracy.

Gentlemen, it's no easy task

to lead a country,

especially in such

hard and complex times,

where notions like homeland,

common good, morality,

respect of others

and social friendship

are so damaged

or discredited...

Eat what?

I have 7 children, no work...

I have nothing.

No mattress, no blanket.

We're totally indigent.

Come see my shack.

Come see it.

See how I live.

Everything's wet.

No one helps us.

They must think we're dogs,

us and our kids.

I never got help.

I have no right to anything,

I'm not paid anything.

I give my youngest some boiled maze

or boiled rice.

I have nothing, that's the truth.

I have no way to get another home.

They promised,

they put down my name, that's all.

The same as for others.

Mariela, come see...

My sister tells me:

"Go to the doctor,

"you're not well, you're so skinny."

I can't take it anymore.

It's intolerable.

There's no work,

I can't feed my little girl

and that hurts.

She asks when we're going to eat,

but there's nothing.

A child can't understand,

but you have to tell the truth.

It hurts to have to say

I have nothing, but it's true.

MAFIOCRACY:

The mafiocracy unites businessmen,

politicians and magistrates,

traffickers and bureaucrats,

union leaders and media moguls.

Their complicity was only matched

by their hypocrisy.

The commission

on money-laundering

showed how

the dirty money

from drugs and corruption

left Argentina

via dummy companies

located mainly in Uruguay,

where they were managed,

toward relay-banks

in the U.S. Or in Switzerland.

Money-laundering

We investigated

Citibank, Credit Suisse,

Trainers Bank, JP Morgan...

Argentina was the center

of their illicit operations,

via Citibank,

Banco Repblica,

and Monetta's Federal Bank.

Ral Monetta:
Menem's banker.

Monetta owned

Of the media? Like what?

Like cable channels,

Telef, Azul Televisin,

Radio Continental, Editorial

Atlntida, Torneos y Competencias,

provincial cable stations,

Cablevisin...

He was also the biggest shareholder

of Telefnica Argentina.

And on top of it well-connected

to political power

and the Supreme Court.

The very same Supreme Court

that allowed

telephonic rates to be altered

favoring France Telecom

and Telefnica

against international competition.

Curiously, it seems

that a member of the Supreme Court,

a cousin by marriage

of Monetta's lawyer,

received $800000 dollars

sent to the Citibank of New York.

What are the global estimates

of kickbacks

connected to privatizations?

- Between 5 and 10 billion dollars.

- And who were the perpetrators?

Mainly Cavallo, Menem and Kohan,

in the last ten years,

and for money-laundering,

the Banco General de Negocios.

We also discovered

bribes paid

during Alfonsn's government,

mainly to the central Bank,

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